drop down options:

Questions 1-4 : somewhat important, most important, important, least important

Question 5-7: high, average, poorly

Question 8-10: One click, Big Byte

Questions 1-4 : somewhat important, most important, important, least important

Question 5-7: high, average, poorly

Question 8-10: One click, Big Byte

B2B Vendor Analysis: Quality Software Vendors Just as in the consumer buying process, companies assess vendor performance to determine how to make future buying decisions. In a B2B setting, this analysis is more objective and formal, often entailing key and specific metrics/issues that could affect the company's overall performance. But not all issues are of equal weight to the company. Even though they are important, some are more important than others. In the following exercise, you'll evaluate software vendors using the vendor analysis process outlined in your textbook. Read the fictional scenario below, reviewing the criteria that Marcus, a young entrepreneur, will use to evaluate which of two online marketing software to purchase for his startup company: One Click and More than Just Software. Study the data in the product evaluation table and then answer the questions that follow. Marcus just joined a small company founded by two former classmates, and he has been charged with purchasing the online marketing software that the company will use to promote its products and communicate with its customers. He has a lot of friends in the same industry and trusts their recommendations. In fact, Marcus considers credibility the most important vendor characteristic. He's also interested in how much support-technical, implementation, and so forth-the vendor offers. More critical, though: How well can the software deliver the speed and efficiency his company needs? And how simple is the ordering process? Luckily, his new bosses are flush with funding so, money is no object. After taking advantage of a 7-day free trial, Marcus concludes that One Click's software-in terms of user experience, simplicity of the installation, and implementationis the best fit for his company. But he's unhappy that Technical Support offers such limited hours. He's also not impressed by its sub-par response times, per an industry watchdog. Marcus thinks the limited technical support hours that might be reflected in the price-the vendor does not charge extra for Support Services. In fact, the software's overall cost- accounting for everythingis better than most. According to Marcus's fairly in-depth research, One Click lands in the middle of lists ranking vendors in its category. His networking contacts seem to be split on its performance, too. Big Byte's Support Services are second to none: 24/7 phone, email, and chat access to both technical and client support representatives; plus, an elaborate recovery plan should there be a system-wide failure. There is an extra cost for that, which raises the overall price of the software to just about average in the market. The design, navigation, and customization capabilities of Big Byte's software are about on par, performance-wise, with other software Marcus has sampled, which surprises him a bit, since both founders of his company gave it higher marks than he would have done on a recent industry-wide survey of tech leaders. At the completion of his research Marcus decides to write up an evaluation comparing One Click to Big Byte based on his four key criteria: reputation, support services, software speed and efficiency, and ease of ordering. The following product evaluation table shows the numerical importance weights and performance scores that Marcus applied to each of the selection criteria he identified. Note that the total weight of all four criteria equals 1.0, where 0.1 is the least important and 0.4 is the most important. The performance scores fall on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is the lowest score and 10 is the highest. The total performance scores vary across each vendor. PRODUCT EVALUATION One Click Big Byte Importance Performance Performance Weights Weighted Weighted Score Score Reputation 0.4 2.8 51 Support 0.2 1 0.2 10 21 Services Software speed and 0.3 10 3 7 2.1 efficiency Ease of 0.11 10 0.1 Ordering TOTAL 11 28 71 23 6.2 11 1 1. How important is software speed and efficiency to Marcus? (Click to select) 4 2. How important to Marcus is the vendor's reputation among industry leaders? (Click to select) 3. How important to Marcus is the availability and effectiveness of support services? (Click to select) 4. How important to Marcus is ease of ordering? (Click to select) 4 5. According to Marcus, how does One Click perform on software speed and efficiency? (Click to select) 6. Aco to Marcus, how does Big Byte perform on reputation? (Click to select) 7. According to Marcus, how does Big Byte perform on ease of ordering? (Click to select) 8. Based on the compensatory model which software vendor should Marcus choose? (Click to select) 9. Based on reputation alone, which vendor should Marcus choose? (Click to select) 10. Based on support services alone, which vendor should Marcus choose? (Click to select)